IRS NOTICE REFERENCE
Understanding Your Letter 5938
We sent you this letter because we have no record that you filed your Form 1040 income tax return.
General information only. Not legal or tax advice.
Notice details
- Notice code
- Letter 5938
- Category
- Filing and non-filer
- Severity tier
- Tier 2 — Action or response expected. The IRS has taken or proposed an action and expects a response or payment.
- Governing law
- §6651; §6012 (Internal Revenue Code sections)
- Source
- IRS.gov — Understanding Your IRS Notice
What this notice is
We sent you this letter because we have no record that you filed your Form 1040 income tax return.
Source: IRS.gov. Reproduced for reference. General information — not legal or tax advice.
What the IRS says to do
File your Form 1040 income tax return immediately or explain to us why you don't need to file.
This is the IRS’s own guidance reproduced from the IRS notice page. It describes the IRS’s process — it is not legal or tax advice from TaxRiskOS.
Governing IRS procedure (Internal Revenue Manual)
The IRS’s own internal procedures for handling this notice type are documented in the Internal Revenue Manual:
- IRM 5.1.11 — 5.1.11 Delinquent Return Investigations
- IRM 5.18.1 — 5.18.1 Automated Substitute for Return (ASFR) Program
- IRM 4.12.1 — 4.12.1 Nonfiled Returns
Reference to published IRS procedure. General information — not legal or tax advice.
Official IRS reference
Read the official notice page on IRS.gov: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/understanding-your-letter-5938
Related tools
TaxRiskOS is workflow software for practitioners — it captures the notice, computes the deadline, surfaces the escalation tier, and builds a document checklist. It documents process; it does not give advice or draft responses.
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